And by you to open your bibles to Luke chapter 6 verses 46 and 47, Bill, a man that has been around as long as you imply that I have and had as many experiences as oughtin' to be saying the things I said this morning about how frightened I was about this experience. And I know that, and I've had several people say, and you oughtin' to feel that way, and I know what they mean by that. I don't feel Christ like I never have. I know how great the distance is between us, and I don't even feel like Paul much, but I did this morning, and I do a little less tonight, and I want to tell you that when Paul said I came before you weak, nervous, and shaking the fear. I don't know exactly why this has been an unnerving experience to me, but I want to tell you that I really have looked forward to these preaching services with mixed feelings. It's been a mixture of fright and fear and a sense of inadequacy, and a feeling of joy and delight and gratitude for the opportunity and the privilege, and that's all been mixed together. But tonight you put up with a little complaint from me this morning along that line tonight. I feel a little more comforted and encouraged, token of that is I'm keeping my glasses on. I don't know what you noticed this morning, but I took them off a good deal. I really didn't feel up to looking at you too closely this morning, but I do feel encouraged. Dr. Packer will no understand what I'm saying when I say when you're in London, don't ever try to encourage people by telling them to take courage. And I'm going to begin tonight by telling you about the biggest blunder I guess I've ever made in the pulpit, and then the biggest blessing, and they all came to same place, same Sabbath in London, by the way. Mr. Rainer, who Don Graham quoted this morning, something message he sent to me could report on both of these, and maybe he did the Don Graham. And Don mentioned that it did remind me of what I'm telling you now. There was another time when I had a sense of almost dread at preaching, and that was when I was given the opportunity to visit in London for a few days and preach for a communion service in the morning and then for the evening service in Westminster Chapel. The very thought of all the ministry, the great ministry of the word by Dr. Lloyd Jones there, the thought of that just unnerved me to think about me standing up there and preaching. The two or three days I was in London just on my own just walking around here and there, I could hardly notice what I was seeing for bearing the burden, you know, of that responsibility of preaching there in that great man's pulpit. But maybe the day before that Sabbath, it might have been on Saturday, but maybe on Friday, I was across the Tim's from Westminster, Eddie, and was going down a non-descript street to full a non-descript buildings, but all it wants to build and caught my attention, and this is what I told the people about at Westminster Chapel that Sunday morning when I wanted to sort of break the ice and get the feel and maybe get a little tension out of myself. So I just started telling them that I guess I'd seen about what most tourists from America saw when they came to London and only had maybe two days to walk around. But that what had impressed me the most was a building that I'd seen and a non-descript building about four stories. I think it was unoccupied down on the lower floors, but it had on it a sign that looked new and brilliant, large, gold letters that had a great message for my heart, and I thought it had a wonderful message for everybody. Now, the reason that sign impressed me so much, the three reasons, one is I was very disencouraged because of the fearfulness that I really had as I anticipated that Sabbath. The prime minister had just that week resigned in England. The pound was the news and the newspaper. It was taking a pounding. Everybody in England along with me seemed to be discouraged. And they're walking down the street and bring it golden letters I saw up there that what was to me, a very helpful sign, it said, take courage. And it looked so new that I thought, you know, some wealthy business, man, now that's not a very side of the Bible, but that's good counsel. And some wealthy business, man, it looked like it had just been put up there. Some wealthy business man is trying to encourage his fellow Londoners. So I got my camera out and made a picture of it. All this I told the congregation in Westminster Chapel that Sunday morning, earnestly as a good illustration. But just as I got to the point, you know, that I said this was a sign that really had a wonderful message for all of us. The laughter went over the sanctuary and I didn't, I didn't know that British congregations last much and I didn't mean to be funny. So I knew I'd said something that was out of place, but I didn't know what it was. So I just stopped right there. You can imagine how unnerved I was in. I went ahead with that service. God sustaining me. But I went home with Mr. Rainer the lunch that day. And after we had finished, he said to me, Mr. Patterson, that was a good one about take courage. Well, I thought, now if I just stay quiet, I might find out what kind of order I made. He said, you know, there's another beer almost as popular in London as well. But I primarily take courage. And I know that God blesses the preaching. Be worried. And I'm grateful to those of you who told me you're praying for me in the arrest of us on on this wonderful faculty here at the Institute this week. I've called to your attention. Ask you to turn to the verses 46 and 47 of the six chapters of gospel loot. One of the prominent themes, not peculiar to loot now, but one of the prominent themes in Luke, of course, is the theme of discipleship. And the two verses that I call your attention to are directly definitely related to that theme. Now, ordering the week nearly everything would be bringing out of the gospel of Luke seems to have a direct relationship to this general theme of discipleship that run through the gospel of loot. These two verses come at the end of that most famous sermon that Jesus ever preached. It's not the first when the loop records over in the fourth chapter you remember. He records the first sermon that he records from Jesus. This is the second one that he records. It seems to be the same sermon that Matthew was recording, beginning at the fifth chapter of the gospel, a Matthew, and people of scholars have debated whether Jesus preached the same sermon on two different occasions because of this one occasion when Jesus went up on the mountain high to pray and then came back down to a level place and there sort of on a plane but still upon an elevation preached this sermon. In either case, as reported in Matthew and reported in Luke, Jesus began to sermon with the beatitudes and the he ends it with an allegory. Now, the concluding allegory in this sermon is preface by verses 46 and 47. What he says in verses 46 and 47 prompts the little story or illustration or allegory that Jesus uses here. In verse 46, though, we have a statement that brings to mind another allegory that Jesus didn't tell, but one of Jesus' people did. John Bunyan and the great allegory pilgrimage progress tells of Mr. Faithful becoming acquainted with Mr. Talkities. He is very much impressed with the past or seemingly sincere talk of Mr. Talkities. He makes a quick judgment. It's a good judgment in a sense. That is good for Mr. Talkities. He believes that Mr. Talkities is going to make a fine companion for him as they travel along together because he talks with such fluency and he talks through doctrine. However, as they went along, Mr. Faithful's opinion of Mr. Talkities begins to change. He begins to discover that he really is much talk. As a matter of fact, he begins to discover before long that he's all talk, that he's only talk, and that he seems to be one of those who believes that saying it makes it so. In verse 46, Jesus is saying that saying it doesn't make it so. Why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord? I mean, that's the impact of it. And never do what I tell you. Saying it, Lord, doesn't make him Lord. Now in verse 47, Jesus tells us what his definition of a true disciple, a true Christian really is. Now, of course, Luke doesn't use the word Christian here. The word Christian isn't found in Luke's gospel. Matthew never used the word Christian. Mark never used. Luke never used it here in this gospel. John doesn't use it in his gospel. Jesus never used that we know of. As a matter of fact, the word Christian only comes up three times in the Bible, Luke gives it twice in the book of Acts. One time is in first Peter chapter 4, where Peter speaks of suffering as a Christian. Luke tells us in chapter 20, in the 26 chapters of the book of Acts, that a gripper when he had heard the testimony of Paul said almost you persuade me to be a Christian. The other time that it's used is also used by Luke in chapter 11 when Luke is describing how the word got its origin. And those are the only three times it's found in all the Bible. Luke tells us in book of Acts chapter 11, it was an adioc that the disciples first got there in a Christian. And the significance in a way of that little fragment of history there that that Luke gives us is this. Who are called Christians? The disciples are called Christians. And maybe it would be a good thing to come back to that fresh new new testament concept that when you think of a Christian you've got to think of a disciple. And wherever you find anybody who wears the name Christian and isn't a disciple in the definition the Jesus gift, you haven't got a Christian. So it's important to get the new testament concept of discipleship just in order to know who Christian really is. And Jesus is giving us that here in verse 47. In verse 46 he tells us who's not a Christian. The person who may passly profess Jesus is my Lord but he never really does what Jesus says. He's not a disciple Christian, verse 47. Everyone who comes to me and here's what I says and practice is it. I will show you what he is like. He is like the man who is building his house to and building his house the deep and laid foundations on the rock. Three things he tells us there and I really think maybe you could make it to because two of them perhaps could be put together under one head. What Jesus is saying here it seems to me as this. The true Christian, the true disciple is one who comes to me and then comes after me. Well we'll look at those concepts just a moment. Look at the little phrase there at the beginning of verse 47 now. Everyone who comes to me let me focus your attention on the word comes there. Paul is really using three verbs here. Come here and act or practice live out. They're part of symbols. But look at the one come there. That's a synonym for faith. Jesus used that word often as a synonym for faith. He used others like he, he that he just needs. He's talking about believing. Receive. He's talking about believing when he uses that. Follow me. He's talking about believey when he talks about follow me. And when he says come that's the graphically illustrated and in the sixth chapter of John a companion chapter we might say to the sixth chapter of the gospel of Luke. And John chapter six, for instance in verse 35 Jesus says this whoever comes to me shall never be hungry. He's just said I am the bread of light. Whoever comes to me shall never be hungry. Whoever believes in me. He says I'm talking about believing when I'm talking about coming. And he goes on down in verse 40 verse 37 all that the father gives me will come to me that is believe in me. He will believe her. And him who believes in me I will know I guess now verse 44. No man can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him on over a little brother there verse 65. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him by my father over in chapter 7 Jesus makes this statement. If anyone is thirsty let him come to me. That was a favorite term of Jesus. It was a synonym for believing in him. But the way it's used here the way Luke puts into the Greek what Jesus said in the era mate makes it clear that he's talking about a coming that isn't an isolated single act that's completed and done for it. It's a present participle. It's a it's a coming that that is continuous. It has a beginning but it has no ending that's the kind of action he's talking about here. Everybody sometime or other who comes to Jesus begins to come but if they're coming in true fading faith they never stop coming. Yes that kind of action. One may know when he or she began coming to Jesus believing in him. Many here could if I were to ask here we could have the hands of many who could hold up their hands and say I could name the date. I could name the hour. When on a self-conscious way I deliberately turned to Jesus and came to him. There are others in here who are in his Christians who could ever hold up your hand on that but because you don't remember when it was in your life that this took place. But you can know that you have because you are coming to him. Saving faith isn't glancing to Jesus it's gazing at him looking unto him who is the author and the finish of our thing. It's turning our eyes upon him and never taking them off. It's looking unto him for time and eternity then our eyes are set upon him as we run the race of life. Salvation isn't an instantaneous instant in which everything is a accomplishes the beginning of a process that never has an end. It's a coming that goes on. Therefore those of us in this congregation who could never name the day in the hour which we turned our face to Jesus Christ can't tell the night whether we're still looking to him in trust and faith. We're coming to him our lives day by day are directed into Jesus Christ. Therefore we know that we're here not because we can remember the day or the hour like somebody believes it can and those who can remember the day and the hour and the moment you can't put your confidence there the confidence has to be are you following him now are you coming to him are you directed toward him so coming like that not a physical coming certainly though when when Jesus said that people could come to him physically he was actually there in the flesh and people in the flesh could in a sense physically come to him but he's talking about the coming that people halfway around the world two thousand years later the kind of coming they could experience and participate in the coming of spirit the coming of heart and it's not wrong to pack everything with the New Testament tells us about faith and the what Jesus is saying coming Jesus is talking about faith and it's not exceeding the rights that we have to take everything to the New Testament says about faith and packing it into what Jesus says right here because we're all conscious that the full dimensions of faith in the New Testament go something like this when Jesus is speaking here about believing in him coming to him as the first element in being disciples you're talking about coming to him I'll continue or coming to him in a conviction of mind that recognizes and keeps on recognizing him for who he is and what he is to remember Jesus said except you believe I'm he that is unless you believe I'm the one I declare myself to you to be and if you believe that you'll perish in your sins coming to Jesus believing in Jesus means believing about Jesus the truth that he himself reveals concerning himself what it also means the continual coming to Jesus Christ in a confidence of heart it's not only recognizing him and continuing daily to recognize him as the Lord and Savior but it's up the coming to rest our whole hope upon him and continuing to rest on him so it's like Paul and Salis told the Jailer believe on him and use that little preposition that would describe the house resting on a foundation other foundation to no man lay in the disciple of Jesus Christ the true Christian is one who has come and faced the rest one's life holy upon him we rest our whole confidence for pardoned percent upon him and his death for us on the cross we rest our whole confidence for the power to stay in God and stay with God till he gets us to heaven upon Jesus Christ who is the one who will hold us and be our strength within it's coming to Jesus and coming and coming throughout our life throughout eternity looking under him for the pardon and the power that makes us his also of course the house resting on a foundation gets a cheek from it the foundations round you know what shape the house will be the foundations of triangle you know what shape the house will be if the triangle if the foundation is a square rectangle you know that's going to give the shape to the house and Jesus here in this very passage I believe points that out to us he says in verse 40 of the same chapter of pupil and in a sense that's a disciple of pupil is not superior to his teacher but everyone when his training is complete will reach his teacher's level that's our great calling to be like Jesus and that's what we will be someday by his grace when he comes and we see him as he is but even now we're in the process of purifying ourselves to the grace that God gives us and so one who is a Christian the disciple is one whose confidence in heart is constantly resting on Jesus Christ as the one whose death provides our pardon whose resurrection provides our power and his life and his lips speaking the words of life give the shape that our lives will take
and it means coming to Jesus Christ with a commitment of will continually coming any man would be my disciple Jesus said let him take up his cross day by day by day by day and follow me one begins to do that somewhere along the way and continues to come after him in a commitment of life to him so this is the import of this little phrase that Jesus puts in a participle everyone who is coming to me there's a lot there life change but he had something to that everyone who comes to me and here's what I say learns of me that could mean learn about me or learn from me and probably means both in a sense and acts upon it I believe those last two can be put together because they do speak of coming after Jesus Christ the doctor Reverend Jay of Bath and preaching on or writing on I don't know which it was on John chapter 10 says that the sheep of Jesus are marked in the mouth marked in the in the ear and in the foot for Jesus says my sheep here my voice and they follow me now in a sense these two elements come up in this 47th verse don't they Jesus says the one who is coming to me and the one who is hearing me here again is a present participle it doesn't mean you just come and hear Jesus word and say well I believe that and go on it's a constant listening to Jesus it means that once forever then is the student sitting at the feet of Jesus learning about him and learning from him and then goes out to put it into practice once again that's the present participle who is practicing who begins with the coming to Jesus and continues in the practicing these are the evidences of this coming to Jesus two things there I remember maybe a year ago a year and a half ago I was holding a meeting for one of my graduates at Reform Seminary the wonderful wife of this graduate told me one evening that the next day she was had an appointment to visit with a neighbor that she had come to love very much who lived on the same street that she did she had formed a just a personal human friendship with her but she had a deep spiritual interest in this woman was greatly concerned about her she was concerned because she just could not get an effective approach to witness to her she felt that the evidence is that she'd seen in their months of friendship testified that it was very likely this woman really was not a believer in Jesus Christ in a saving way but she still was uncertain about it the reason primarily she was uncertain was the fact that the woman affirmed so can with such conviction that she certainly was a Christian yet she also as equally and frankly would confess to her that to this minister's wife that she had no sense of pleasure in life or in God or in Christ she didn't enjoy reading the Bible and she didn't do it she didn't go to church she took no interest in that she didn't have anything that of a spiritual interest at all nothing that pleased her of a spiritual nature and it was because of both of these frank statements about this woman that of course this minister's wife was greatly concerned and she said I've talked to her on the phone and I'm going over and have coffee with her tomorrow and we're going to talk about this and she said I know she's going to tell me again that she knows she's a Christian I think it was because she was confident at 15 or 20 years before there'd been an experience that had taken place maybe in a morning service or religious service of some kind where she had made some sort of an open profession and because of that she was convinced that she was a Christian yet she herself admitted you know that there was no real pleasure in her life of any kind of a spiritual nature and what a Christian would ordinarily like to do she didn't like to do and didn't do wasn't that she was living in a moral life but there just wasn't no interest there really in the things that were what you call the things of Christ well the verse that she was asking me she said what should I do well I didn't know exactly what she should do but within the few days of the time I talked with her I read this passage here and it came back to my mind and I opened up my new testament I said well let's look at this a minute I said why don't you try this go over there and sure these three things that Jesus talks about that it identifies her real Christian and don't tell her she's not a Christian but just say here's a good verse to find out whether you're a Christian or not and you can come to this he that comes to me and she's probably going to say that she has because she remembers back there when she came down the aisle or whatever that was that happened but but you see you've got two other things that you can add with that to tell whether that was valid or not and you can help her see whether that experience that she looks back to was valid or not and here's what you can say Jesus said everyone who comes to me and is listening to me and is putting this into practice well that is that that's Jesus own word and so it's well to look at it learn of me isn't it wonderful that those who believe in Jesus today can listen to him as definitely and concretely as those disciples who were with him when he walked in the flesh isn't it remarkable and wonderful that Jesus has called us to the kind of faith that can be active and blessed today in as much measure perhaps greater measure than could that actually face of those who were walking with Jesus in the days of his flesh we really can learn about him and learn directly from Jesus every Christian came now I feel back in those days when he was here on earth in the flesh listening to him and learning of him would mean that the disciple would be found in the physical group around Jesus going around with him learning and if a person didn't do that just came once and that was about all including to be a disciple of Jesus it probably would have been evidently one but he's not here in the flesh now how do we learn about him how do we learn from Jesus how does Jesus speak to us is definitely and personally and directly as he did then well he set up a wonderful provision he speaks to us his word through books that is more than just a recording of what he said it's more than just a recording of what he did he speaks of his word as being a living word that is when I take up the New Testament for instance of the Bible and begin to read in it Jesus Christ is speaking to me as definitely and personally and clearly as he spoke to the disciples this is his word it's a living word and when my mind turns to this word I'm in the presence of the Savior and Jesus is saying this to me and if I'm a disciple I'm going to be there day after day letting Jesus speak to me will I not can you be a pupil can you be a disciple and not go to school can you miss most of the time can you only go once a month can you only open the book on this to the Cajuns and really be kept in school or Jesus a disciple of mine is one who is coming to me and that continual coming will be seen and a coming to me to listen to my word and here is his word and he speaks directly to us directly to us through an institution he established the church he's definitely present wherever two or three come together there it's the pillar of his truth and he's the head of it and he has in it people he himself has gifted to teach and the pastor and the priest and Jesus speaks to his church that's why it's important to have the assembling of together together of the people of God that Jesus through his appointed instruments speak through whom he speaks his word we have an and we have a private tutor he certainly hasn't has left us just in the hands of human beings center saved by grace who speak his word but he places in the heart of every person who comes to him and is coming to him is listening to him and learning from him he places in their hearts the Holy Spirit who teaches us leads us into truth personal relationship with a personal tutor a wonderful person of the Holy Spirit I'm just saying one who really is coming in heart and will and man to Jesus Christ is going to be one whose heart and mind and will will be looking day after day to Jesus were to learn of him to learn about him who is the object of our faith the goal of our whole nation and then he goes on to say and will be living it out putting it into practice well that's a very important factor too and one of the things that we'll be touching on once or more as we go on through these studies of Luke is how Luke develops this aspect of discipleship of being a Christian the practical application into daily living of the faith we have in Jesus Christ how it issues out in our the relationship we have to our own persons in terms of Christ like character and characteristics how it relates to our lives who are practically relate to people of people who are different from us like the one who was preaching Jesus but didn't go along with the apostolic group there and they wanted to chastise him somewhere other in Jesus reductive how we get along with people who are difficult like enemies how we live with people who are deprived poor afflicted Luke has a lot to say about that how we deal with people who are devoid of faith Luke in his development of discipleship purchase on how the Christian life practices out the Christian living in relationships of all these kind of people and then he makes it very clear that the living out of one's discipleship will be probably most evidently seen in our relationship to what we own our possessions this is the scariest part of Luke's teaching it's the most frightening part it's the most radical part in the there's where we we find verses that I don't know how to preach about I don't want to whittle down one with what Jesus says and I'm scared to say what he says
and I don't know that I've ever met a Christian who professed to do it but enough of that what I'm saying is this Jesus is saying look there's something genuine and real we quote I said this morning I preach most often on I preach most often the verse I preached on most often the second Corinthians 517 therefore if anyone is in Christ he or she is a new creation hold things pass away behold everything is needed that's not just a mystical experience it's a very practical thing you see how it works out why is it when a person comes into Jesus Christ is united in Jesus Christ in the coming of a true faith why is it there a new creation here's the reason they're day by day coming to Christ looking to him with a faith that is a yielding up of mind and heart and will and body that's got to make a new kind of lady it's because every day this person is going to be learning about Jesus thinking about him wanting to learn about him and learn more of him as Paul wanted to know and learn from him it means we're going to be sensitive to his word and looking to his word and it means we're going to be earnest in our personal lives our whole life our business life every phase of our lives we're going to be busy trying to find the ways we can implement what Jesus teaches us out into those ways of life so wouldn't it has to be that a person who's a who in here tonight right where you're sitting could bow your head and begin coming to Jesus yielding your mind and acceptance to him of who he really is God's son who came to be to save you and Lord yield your heart to him to really trust his blood for the cleansing of your sin and his risen power to hold you and guide you and keep you all the way home yield your will to him to start learning his word you could do that tonight and begin day by day following Jesus with that faith and ever live the same again my friends there's something liberating here what Jesus is saying here has got to liberate us from enslavement to secondary loyalties as important as we are and there's some secondary loyalties that are important but Jesus is talking about the primary loyalty here that marks the Christian and there is a certain liberation that comes in from us to us I believe secondary loyalties like loyalty to our party loyalty to our religious party the particular group that we want to describe or whatever we word we want to that we see logically belong to loyalty to that party
loyalty to that system mr. Wilson that certainly is true for us veterans and methodists have a lot in common John Wesley and John Calvin did that the same first name John you may not know for sure which one they're talking about if all you see is John now I'll admit the Calvin and Wesley don't sound exactly the same and there are some differences there but the Christian's primary loyalty isn't to a system that's secondary it really is secondary friends it really is secondary the primary loyalty is to him and the people who hold systems that are different that hold total loyalty to Jesus Christ it's released from liberty from sectarian loyalties it's important as they may be in such a wonderful places they may feel in our lives it's secondary the brotherhood of united disciples to by be found in those who affirm with their minds the Lord Jesus Christ as say during Lord who are seeking to learn of him and some may be ahead of others in learning and some may be off on some detours in learning but they want to learn of him that's a hard to desire and they're seeking honestly to follow Jesus and the course of their lives here is our great basis of unity this is the loyalty that unite and and there are probably people right here tonight among us here
who need to come to Jesus like this there could be some here tonight who in a sense have come to Jesus but have never really been earnest in coming after him and so something further needs to be dealt with in one life now there could be some here who've been earnest in trying to come after Jesus but the trouble is you've never really come to him as the Savior and Redeemer the risen regent
you're trying to come after his pattern which you've never come to him as a person turned your life and trusting him and then maybe some here tonight who's never done either the wonderful thing is he's here and we can come to him now I told you about the blender I pulled that I still humiliate me in Westminster Chapel thank god god give me a great blessing though man that has as wise you did they do a wonderful thing at least they did the Sunday I preached there when I came down from that high platform that you preach on there and came down the back there with the Deacon standing right there now I use a way back to the vestry which is a study because I've been in there a Saturday afternoon and I've been in there already that morning but the Deacon was there he ushered me as if I didn't know right on back to the vestry it was just a courtesy and then another Deacon as soon as I sat down at the desk and the vestry the study there team up and put a packing hot cup of tea right there by by me I like that custom I recommended to boards of Deacons in churches it's a nice thing for a pastor who's tried to faithfully preach and another Deacon I was told would take his stand outside the door so that if anyone wanted to talk to me about anything that I'd said in the sermon he could bring them in and introduce them to me in a proper fashion so I sat down in there and I want to tell you that my faith was very low I didn't believe anybody becoming in to speak to me and I drink that cup of tea alone but I've never taken but a sip or two until this Deacon team in and brought up man who looked to be about 50 years of age with him and he said Mr. Patterson this is Mr. Pagan and he's like to have a word with you I thought I heard what he said but I wanted to be sure about it so I said did you say Mr. Pagan and Mr. Pagan said smile and said yes I said PA GA N Pagan you smile again he said yes but I'm really not a pagan now he said I'm a Christian well now I like that that was a good turn so I told him I said Mr. Pagan I want you to sit down here and tell me how you became a Christian so he sat down and the Deacon went back and get him a cup of cup of tea and I said well look tell me how it happened and then I got the real surprise he said well I it happened about 10 minutes ago he had come to London two weeks before and it's taken up quarters down at the Salvation Army Citadel not very far from Westminster Chapel he was in deep troubling great confusion and the people there in that Salvation Army Citadel had shown grace and kindness to it when the first Sunday after he got there rolled around somebody there at the Citadel thought him said it might do you good if you went up to Westminster Chapel to church which he did that Sunday morning Dr. John R. DeWitt theology professor at Reformed Theological Seminary preached there and he preached on Jesus' words the son of man has come to seek and to save the lost and any of you heard John R. DeWitt preach you know he really heard the gospel when somebody given so he was back the second Sunday and so he told me he said you know as you came to the end of the service you said Jesus Christ is here right there where you are even though you can't see and if you want him and you need him you can call upon him right now and those who call can have him and he said I needed him and I wanted him and I thought if that's true I'm going to do it and he said I just bowed my head right there and I did he was pretty sure he'd done it too because he said he wasn't Mr. Pagan now he was a Christian but isn't it wonderful that more wonderful that Jesus is that accessible here he is I don't have to ask you to walk down here while I walk past and he's there he stands at the very threshold of our doors
it's not the action of physical feed it's the action of the heart and anyone here who wants to be a Christian who wants to be a disciple is encouraged and I get to be closed this service to recognize that Jesus Christ is in our midst there stands one right there where you are that you cannot see but he's there he's the Savior centers and he's made a promise those who come to him listen to him
and engage him that adventure of life of beginning to learn how to live for him as he gets graced those who come to him was that kind of heart he immediately receives never cast out so we're going to bow before him tonight you and he know what the need of your own heart is and what your response to him needs to be you may be one of those who've been seeking to come after Christ but you you've never really come to commit your trust to him who died and stayed for your sins and has risen from the dead to be the only Lord who in person has told you and keep you or you can never never really follow you need to come to him like that there may be some who have sought to come to him maybe like that you put value in the cross but you you really haven't earnestly honestly sought to follow maybe neither one but he's here tonight and you can come to him I just say take this verse that he's given the one who comes to me ready to begin listening and learning from me to begin to live for me letting come so come let us bow before him now and just the time of quietness when you can cry out in the silent heart calls in Jesus to be your Savior and Lord and commit yourself myself to follow him blessed Savior we truly are thankful that you really do receive simple men and women boys and girls and you save them and lives you change and bless in the coming to in the coming afternoon thank you blessed Savior for every heart your spirit has turned to you in a self conscious self giving trust tonight feel that person those people with joy and peace and believing and give them strong assurance in the Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus name amen